Taurinor wrote:I think another angle on "2) He has spent more time wandering and sleeping in the wilds than any of us have been alive" that seems related to acclimation but slightly different is familiarity with the terrain. In addition to being used to the cold, Aragorn knows the land like the back of his own hand. He knows which way the prevailing winds blow, what the approaching rain smells like, and the like, and can choose campsite accordingly. It also seems like Rangers leave at least some small preparations at sites they come back to on occasion ("Rangers have been here lately. It is they who left the firewood behind." FotR, Book I, Chapter 11: "A Knife in the Dark"). I don't think they would have anything as formal as waystations or the like, but the underside of a rocky outcropping that stays dry even in the rain, a stand of low-branched pines with a thick carpet of needles, or the large trunk of a fallen tree that cuts the wind just right seem like things they would note and return to, if needed.

As Greg said, Aragorn has several decades of wandering on us, but if folks have some favorite woods to tromp about it, that sort of a familiarity seems like something to strive for!

This is our hobby. Unfortunately, for untold thousands of homeless people, knowing where the best natural shelter is located is an absolute survival skill. I was giving a hitch-hiker in California a lift and he told me, "If you ever find yourself homeless, find a mattress store. The big cardboard boxes that mattresses come in can quickly turn into a 'pup tent,' and in dry climates, if you get them wet when you fold them, they dry harder and become more durable." Not anything I would have known or thought of had I not had that conversation. But exactly the kind of 'lay of the land' knowledge you're talking about.

Another reason I've been mulling over for making this change is another tactical consideration that we've discussed at some length over the years: What do you take when you get ambushed in the middle of the night and have to take off in a great hurry?

In the past, that question has been answered with "Grab sword/Grab bow+Quiver/grab both and get out of dodge..." and similar...but there's almost always the understanding that something is going to get left behind.

Here with this change, we have a very different scenario. My sword unbuckles from my belt, and everything else is hanging off my quiver straps...snapsack and tinderbox contain virtually everything. I wear my belt+seax+need wallet to bed (I spin my belt around backwards when cooking and generally around camp...it makes sitting easier, and keeps my saxe and wallet quick-to-hand when slicing potatoes and whatnot, and allows me to sleep without taking them off), so if I have to run like a pack of Wargs is closing, all I have to do is grab my quiver, bow, and sword. I'll have to work my waterskin into this scenario somehow, but buckling it and my quiver together before laying down to rest sounds like an easy, early solution for finding everything I want in the dark.

The only way this works, however, rides on the one variable we're discussing: IF I'm using my cloak as bedding. The moment I use a separate blanket roll, things will inevitably get left behind in a nighttime Warg-Attack scenario...a thing which is very much likely in the wilds we claim to wander, and it happened to the Fellowship shortly before Moria.

Pretty much, yeah, it is worn. Given that the bocksten is essentially an open-sided poncho, it goes over and under me, and can be wrapped closer for additional layers. The legs can be tucked up to include the feet, or not as one chooses. You can also cover feet with a solid pile of needles and brush, though chief in my concerns is changing socks. On cold nights, I put my day's socks on OVER my dry night socks.

Something I’ve been dwelling on since I finished up my new cloak is packing a lighter weight blanket or even just a smaller one to wrap around my legs and feet. This may be over obvious and I’m sure you’ve considered it but it could offer a “best of both worlds” solution in the long run.

"Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters – but hunters ever of the servants of the Enemy."

In the spirit of this project, the first thing I really needed to do was finish out my winter outerwear. To that end, I just stitched up a fitted Nockert Type 1 with side gores only and elongated underarm gussets (because swords) out of the beautiful gray-green wool that I reviewed in this past season's Edge of the Wild on Dwarves.

The sleeves are a loosely-snug fit, if that makes any sense. Tailored but not tight. I can't roll them up like I do my linen tunic...but this is for warmth, so no loss there. It feels like I'm wearing a blanket in a perpetual hug...which was kinda the goal since I'm cutting back a blanket 9 months out of the year. Should be able to put this on to make up for a lot of that loss.

Anyhow, it was mid-20's in temps today and I was toasty. This is actually my first ever photo in what I'll call my new completed full kit, including the new goatskin bota and my Yew Longbow. I need to make a new atm guard still, and there's another short project that's on topic with this thread that I need to sort out for carrying the extra clothing when I'm not wearing it...but I'm gonna say it's complete.

How did the tight sleeves work out over the course of a walk? I find in warm clothes in winter overheat pretty quickly once I'm moving, especially with any amount of load. In modern clothes it's easy to just open up a couple top layers: I'm not certain how I'd do with a fairly snug wool tunic.

Or is the tunic still thin enough that this a "I"m way too cold when I start out, but it warms up to comfortable" thing?

My "start cold end warm" rule is situational. If it's cold with wind, I want to start warm, because my layers will chill over time, and I'll be cut through eventually. When temps are this low and you're reasonably acclimated, the difference between cold and comfortable gets smaller. Here, my arms and legs weren't comfortable when I set out, but my torso was. By the end, the extremities had caught up through work.